


Realize

by Sylphidine_Gallimaufry



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Bennefrost - Freeform, Editor!Pitch, Gift Fic, M/M, Post-Rise of the Guardians, Rise of the Guardians (2012) References, badass bookworms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2019-02-03 08:41:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12744885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylphidine_Gallimaufry/pseuds/Sylphidine_Gallimaufry
Summary: Uncomfortable questions can lead to comforting answers.





	Realize

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nosenippinfun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nosenippinfun/gifts).



> From a Tumblr prompt meme... One character realizing they love the other . My first time writing BenneFrost, so please forgive any oddities of characterization.

Forty-four years. Two-thirds of Jamie’s mortal life, a much smaller fraction of Jack’s immortal one.

The fireflies were, surprisingly, still out in force on this late September night, as Jamie and Jack sat in the porch swing, holding hands. Despite decades of togetherness and their adventurous sex life, when they were here each year at the cabin in the woods of “Pennsyltucky”, to mark the turn of the year from summer to autumn, the evenings always wound down to the rhythm of them holding hands.

Jack never tired of it, and he hoped Jamie never would, either.

The  question came a little earlier this time than it had done in previous years.

“What made you first realize?”

Jack did NOT reply, “You ask me this every year”.  That reply never even occurred to him.  He cherished the ritual and the routine of hearing the question; there was too much time lost in loneliness to make up for.

His answer to Jamie’s question was just as important a part of the ritual as the question itself.

“I always  _liked_  you, you goof, even if it started out that you were some kind of kid brother.  How could I not? You believed in me.

“And even when you were growing out of being a kid and growing up, you were…  you were as full of wonder as North is, and you gave Bunny a run for his money in the hope department, and you had daydreams that were pretty darn near Sandman-level good, and… your memory for everything you ever read?  Man, you were, like…  _photographic_!  Tooth might be the Guardian of Memory, but you were up there with Pitch for being the biggest bookworm I know.”

Jamie snorted with laughter, as he did whenever he heard himself compared to Pitch Black in ANY kind of positive manner.  It had taken him quite a few years to accept Jack’s slowly-forged friendship with the Nightmare King.  But Pitch had proved himself over time to be an excellent editor for Jamie’s urban fantasy novels, [What Jamie’s publisher didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her; she was just happy to get polished prose.].

The grin Jack gave in response to that snort was so wide and gleaming that it would have knocked numerous tooth fairies out of the air, if they’d been there.  He squeezed Jamie’s hand and continued, his tone turning serious.

“I knew for sure I _loved_ you when you came home from college for winter break, and we had one of those heavy-deep-and-real talks about why you shouldn’t just quit studying to be a writer, when you were yelling that you might as well go to work in a factory.”

College-aged Jamie had been so angry and so cynical that Jack had a hard time recognizing him, and had worried that his first believer was gone for good.  Thankfully Jamie was still willing to listen to Jack, when well-meaning advice from teachers, friends, his sister and his mother had failed to reach him. 

Jack wasn’t the best with putting his deepest thoughts into words, but after listening to Jamie rant, he’d managed to stumble on the perfect thing to say.  He’d said, “Jamie Bennett, I believe in you.”

And THAT had opened the conversational and emotional floodgates; they’d stayed up talking all night while the moon tracked across the sky.  And Jack realized that the boy he’d known was not a kid brother anymore, and that he’d never look at Jamie the same way again.

Moonlight now shone on the white hair of the youthful-looking winter spirit and the graying hair of the human man as they rocked slowly on the porch swing, hands clasped tightly, watching the fireflies.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know in the comments whether I should expand this.


End file.
